CHANCE AND UNPREDICTABLE EVENTS IN THE POSTMODERN SEA NOVEL
CHANCE AND UNPREDICTABLE EVENTS IN THE POSTMODERN SEA NOVEL

Summary/Abstract: The sea, often depicted as a space of boundless possibilities and unpredictable dangers, constitutes a central motif in the literary world, offering a stage for human dramas, adventures, and introspections. This paper examines William Golding’s maritime trilogy – “To the Ends of the Earth. A Sea Trilogy” (1980-1989) – positioning it as a symbolic postmodern sea fiction. Golding’s work not only assimilates the sea quest motif with traces of picaresque, Bildungsroman, and travel novels but subverts them to comment on the broader narrative of the sea adventure novel as a romantic genre. While traditionally regarded as a space of infinite possibilities, the sea challenges our moder societal instincts to regulate and predict. Golding plays with this dichotomy, weaving chaos and chance into his narrative, unsettling the reader and challenging conventional literary order. Conclusively, by juxtaposing irony, parody, and the carnivalesque with the sea quest motif, Golding offers a metacritical reflection on the postmodern narrative, confronting and exploring the boundaries of literary self-reflexivity and the continued relevance of the sea novel in contemporary literature.

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